Reserve Bank of India (RBI)
Mumbai: The Reserve Bank is reviewing frictions impacting timely credit of inward cross-border remittances to beneficiary accounts enhance overall efficiency in the cross-border payments ecosystem.
"One of the issues pertains to delays in cross-border payments being most pronounced at the beneficiary stage," the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in its half-yearly Payments Systems Report. "In this context, the Reserve Bank has initiated a review of the frictions impacting timely credit of inward cross-border remittances to beneficiary accounts."
Geopolitical tensions pose significant risks to cross-border payments and financial flows, given the centralised nature of global financial infrastructure and reliance on select settlement currencies. Sanctions, restrictions on financial systems or currencies, and other operational barriers can disrupt markets and access, said the central bank.
The RBI assessment will try to identify frictions within extant processes and recommend measures to streamline payment processing and enhance overall efficiency in the cross-border payments ecosystem.
The RBI will also pursue measures to enhance cross-border payments by encouraging various modes of collaboration with other countries, including interlinking of UPI on bilateral and multilateral basis with fast payment systems of other countries for personal remittances and acceptance via QR Codes at merchant locations abroad.
India remains the top recipient of global foreign remittances, with a record $137.7 billion inflow in 2024, more than double that of Mexico, the second-highest recipient with $67.6 billion. "This underscores India's significant position in the global remittance market, driven by its vast diaspora contributing to foreign exchange reserves and economicstability," RBI said.
RBI and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) have operationalised the linkage of their respective fast payment systems namely the UPI and PayNow n 2023, enabling users of the two systems to make instant and low-cost peer-to-peer (P2P) cross-border payments on a reciprocal basis.
India has also joined Project Nexus with Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand to enable instant cross-border retail payments by interlinking domestic fast payment systems.
"One of the issues pertains to delays in cross-border payments being most pronounced at the beneficiary stage," the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in its half-yearly Payments Systems Report. "In this context, the Reserve Bank has initiated a review of the frictions impacting timely credit of inward cross-border remittances to beneficiary accounts."
Geopolitical tensions pose significant risks to cross-border payments and financial flows, given the centralised nature of global financial infrastructure and reliance on select settlement currencies. Sanctions, restrictions on financial systems or currencies, and other operational barriers can disrupt markets and access, said the central bank.
The RBI assessment will try to identify frictions within extant processes and recommend measures to streamline payment processing and enhance overall efficiency in the cross-border payments ecosystem.
The RBI will also pursue measures to enhance cross-border payments by encouraging various modes of collaboration with other countries, including interlinking of UPI on bilateral and multilateral basis with fast payment systems of other countries for personal remittances and acceptance via QR Codes at merchant locations abroad.
India remains the top recipient of global foreign remittances, with a record $137.7 billion inflow in 2024, more than double that of Mexico, the second-highest recipient with $67.6 billion. "This underscores India's significant position in the global remittance market, driven by its vast diaspora contributing to foreign exchange reserves and economicstability," RBI said.
RBI and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) have operationalised the linkage of their respective fast payment systems namely the UPI and PayNow n 2023, enabling users of the two systems to make instant and low-cost peer-to-peer (P2P) cross-border payments on a reciprocal basis.
India has also joined Project Nexus with Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand to enable instant cross-border retail payments by interlinking domestic fast payment systems.
